


Thrumming Hearts Yearn for Home

by SlaydoreDelaska



Category: Clean Bandit (Band), Years & Years (Band)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-03
Updated: 2015-08-03
Packaged: 2018-04-12 18:05:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4489455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SlaydoreDelaska/pseuds/SlaydoreDelaska
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As per usual, it's been far too long since Neil and Olly have seen each other. Reunion at a CB gig leads to in depth feelings conversations, making out, and a piggyback ride.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thrumming Hearts Yearn for Home

**Author's Note:**

> Little thing I cobbled together for my Nolly groupchat.
> 
> (Thanks, Rosie, for the prompt my love x)
> 
> ALSO: This is un-beta'd so apologies if there are a couple of mistakes.
> 
> Enjoy! I appreciate all comments - praise or criticism ^3^

If Clean Bandit knew anything from their long time performing together, it was how to put on a banging gig. Each and every component of the group's eclectic symphony played their part and contributed to the collective sound and electric energy being created on stage (even if there was just one component Olly liked slightly more than the rest) and transferred to the crowd. The constant stream of drunken, sweaty heads bobbing and swaying along to the beat of the music was testament to that.

Or at least those are the type of thoughts Olly has whilst he is of full and sober mind. Otherwise inebriated, they're more along the lines of "Oh my God this song is cool and it makes my body moooove".

Himself, Emre and Mikey had only just flown back into the UK off the back of a long awaited US tour, and despite draining, malingering exhaustion weighing his body down as soon as he stepped off the plane as if someone had tied weights to his ankles, Olly knew that his boyfriend's band had a gig that night; so therefore that's where he wanted to be. Also he hadn't had a proper night out in London where he could just cut loose and shirk all worries and responsibilities for a while now. 

Besides - he had all the time in the world to sleep later; and time, love, and a hard-hitting vodka shot like a flame torch to the back of the throat waited for no man. His mind was well and truly made up.

"I hate to be boring and sound like the voice of reason here, Ol - but just be careful, okay? You're a lightweight anyway, but on an empty stomach? Christ..." Emre had advised carefully just before they parted ways, more and more sure with each passing word that the advice would fall on deaf ears. Call it brotherly intuition, or just taking one look at the incredulous look Olly shot him as he jokingly retorted "Yeah, you're right. You are being boring" just before parting ways with the other boys.

The club was beyond packed out by the time Olly got there. Heated, anonymous bodies filled the room up from wall to wall, but to some extent he liked that. The larger the crowd, the more he was able to blend in and simply become apart of the backdrop. Sure he still got recognised every now and again between multiple trips back and forth to the bar, but despite it being mildly irritating (not that he'd ever let it show) that came with the territory of a rocketing rise to fame, right?

One of the disadvantages however to the large crowd was the fact that he could barely see the stage over the heads of all the other people, but that was okay. When his eyes occasionally did meet with the pair he'd been seeking, that faint but warm smirk of recognition that showed upon the other man's face was enough to make him feel blissfully happy to just stand there, enjoy the music, have a dance, and act like a semi-normal human being for the first time in months.

Or was the happiness down to the fact that he was well on his way to being completely hammered by the end of the set?

Seeing Neil become fully immersed in the music while he was on stage only served to further Olly's desire to pull him offstage right that second and reunite then and there. Just generally being able to see his boyfriend in the flesh but not communicate with him only intensified and taunted the aching sense of yearning he'd by now grown accustomed to; like rubbing salt into a wound. He yearned for the comfort, stability and protection he found in Neil; that was his home.

Sometime after the set was over and Olly had finished drunkenly conversing with a couple of other party-goers about nothing particularly consequential, out of nowhere a strong pair of arms grabbed him from behind. He let out a shrill gasp of shock in retaliation before being placated just as quickly by the kiss pressed into the side of his neck, a handsome and familiar face appearing in his (now slightly distorted) peripheral vision.

"Babe, where were you?! I thought you'd have the sense to come backstage after we finished" Neil inquired, speaking louder in battle with the blaring music now playing over the speakers.

Olly turned around in Neil's arms so that they were now facing each other, leaning slightly into the taller man's frame for support. This was the first time they'd seen each other in weeks, and Olly's body was flooded with emotion at all that he wanted to say and express in that moment.

"I was in... Narnia! That's where I was; that's why you couldn't find me..."

Smooth, drunk!Olly, smooth.

Neil's eyebrows drew together as he studied his boyfriend's face for a brief second and all at once took in the signs of slight dishevelment; normally ghostly pale cheeks flushed a rosy red, pretty lips letting slip small giggles for no reason, clumsy movements as if his limbs didn't in fact belong to him. All the signs pointed to one conclusion, which Neil reached with a sudden playful and adoring smile.

"Oh my God, you're wasted!"

"No I'm definitely not"

"I think you are..." Neil crooned, punctuating the joking accusation with a light poke in his boyfriend's side. "Or did you really just get back from 'Narnia', then?"

Unable to recall why he was even bothering to insist otherwise, Olly just zoned out and let his gaze roam across the face he'd missed so dearly, before simply conceding with a slightly clumsy but enthusiastic kiss. If he was ever concerned about the opinion of others regarding this choice, all of that melted away in a now hammering heartbeat.

The next few minutes drifted by Olly's hazy consciousness as if he were floating in auto-pilot; Neil navigating him with a guiding, protective hand pressed into the small of his back (was he cautious to keep the smaller man physically close to him for security reasons so as not to lose him in the endless sea of people? Or just because the thought of being physically distant after over three constant weeks of separation seemed torturous?). First to the bar for drinks, then straight onto the relative privacy of the backstage lounge. 

The 'party' atmosphere was left behind at the stage door along with the roar of the crowd and banging of the house music, and suddenly the quiet environment made it so much more intimate and easier to focus just on each other.

They practically collapsed onto the tattered, beat-up old leather couch. It was so small that Olly ended up half lying on top of Neil's body, but that was no matter. Having his head rest gently on Neil's chest, their legs lock together in a tangle of limbs, and the arm wrap around his back to hold him closer overwhelmed Olly with a sense of comfort, love, and blissful ease that he now realised how much he lacked whilst away touring. The adoring both of them felt towards each other was palpable in the room, as if they were caught up in their own little bubble of intimacy and that the world outside of it didn't even exist.

The actual reciprocation of these feelings was such an alien concept to Olly that it tripped him up a little every time Neil expressed himself in this way. And apparently his inebriated brain wanted to make that fact very obvious by so very eloquently blurting out his feelings.

"You're so different than the rest of 'them'; it doesn't even feel right putting them in the same league as you. The fact that I love you and you actually love me back - I...I just can't believe how fucking lucky I've gotten"

Seemingly unflustered by the sudden emotional outpouring, Neil's fingers find their way to card through Olly's hair, and he leans his head forward to kiss the smaller man's temple.

"You deserve the world, and I can only hope to spend forever trying to give it to you. You're worth so much more than you've been led to believe, okay? Believe me"

As much as the deadly mix of booze and intense emotions jibed him to cry, Olly swallowed the lump in his throat and determinedly blinked away any tears threatening to break the waterline. 

He'd spent so much exhausting, heart-wrenching time crying over these silly little boys.

He'd poured his heart into an album of written trinkets to commemorate each of them and bared his soul to those who listened closely enough to the lyrics.

Now was the time to learn from his experiences and leave that life of rejection and intense self-loathing in the past. He owed it to both himself and the unbelievable human being lying beneath him right then.

Olly raised his head off Neil's chest and cupped his cheek, thumb rubbing affectionately against the smooth skin of his cheekbone before capturing his boyfriend's lips in an urgent, intensely desired kiss.

And that's how they remained for some time after; hastily mumbled "I love you"'s and "I've missed you so much"'s escaping into the loaded silence every so often in the momentary break-offs. One of Neil's hands had slid down and come to rest on Olly's ass, and one of Olly's had slipped up Neil's already gorgeously revealing mesh shirt to caress his torso.

Olly whined lowly when Neil fully pulled away, only to be drawn right back in once again entranced when the violinist instead opted to trailing little pecks along his jaw, then tenderly down his neck to where he clamped his lips down and suddenly seemed intent on giving his boyfriend the nastiest, most prominent hickey he'd ever had since they first got together.

...which may also have been the most inopportune moment for the door to swing open and reveal Grace standing in the doorway. Both of them took a second to drag their attention away from each other, but when they did it was only to find her almost completely nonplussed by the scene she'd just walked in on.

"Nice to finally see you again, stranger..." she said towards Olly with a hint of a smile, referencing his hectic touring schedule and how little they got to see each other nowadays. Normally she'd greet him with a friendly embrace but somehow right now didn't seem the most appropriate.

"...just came to say the street's too congested outside the club for the cab driver to get all the way down, so he's parked at the top of the road and we're going to have to walk to him"

The boys stuttered insistences that they'd be right out, still slightly caught up in their adrenaline-infused romantic endeavours they were ripped out of by being caught off-guard.

With a muttered assurance from Neil that this was most definitely "to be continued" later in the hotel, the two of them regretfully pushed themselves up off couch.

Only for Olly to all-too-quickly realise just how drunk he really was, as he stumbled over his own feet trying to move towards the door; only saved from face planting the floor by Neil's grip around the top of his arm.

"Neil...?"

"What?"

"I'm fucking wasted" Olly point-blank admitted for the first time that whole night, followed by a string of terribly endearing giggles.

Neil rolled his eyes with a fond smile, before taking Olly by the waist and guided him to stand up on the sofa.

"You're a mess and there's no way you're making it to that cab, so hop on and I'll give you a piggyback"

And so that's how they travelled all the way up the street to the cab; strong, capable 'musicians' hands supporting the thighs of the man dependently clung to his back; flushed faces bathed in a mix of moonlight and the harsh fluorescent lighting of streetlights as they playfully bantered back and forth; hearts under layers thrumming incessantly with the promise of the intimacy and adoration both so desperately craved.


End file.
